A variety of disclosures exist pertaining to the development of edible dog chews that are digestible, nutritious along with a texture that can be individually adjusted to suit a wide variety of a dog's preferences or needs. Attention is therefore directed to the following exemplary disclosures: U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,161 “Heat Modifiable Edible Dog Chew; U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,516 “Method of Molding Edible Starch; U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,978 “Edible Dog Chew”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,521 “Wheat and Casein Dog Chew with Modifiable Texture”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,441 “Heat Modifiable Peanut Dog Chew”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,427 “Vegetable Based Dog Chew”; 6,086,940 “High Starch Content Dog Chew”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,941 “Animal Chew”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,991 “Turkey and Rice Dog Chew With Modifiable Texture”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,197 “Carrot Based Dog Chew”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,565 ‘Process for Making an Edible Dog Chew”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,771 “Animal Chew Toy Containing Animal Meal; U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,720 “Dog Chew with Modifiable Texture”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,212 “Dog Chew with Modifiable Texture”. Attention is also directed to U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,474 entitled “Application for Patent for Nutriceutical Toy” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,283 entitled “Animal Chew Toy of Starch Material and Degradable Ethylene Copolymer”.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,586,027 and 6,916,497 both entitled “Health Chew Toy” are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and are included herein in their entirety by reference. These patents are directed at molded, completely digestible, nutritious animal chews, enriched with vitamins, minerals and/or herb additives.
While the above certainly contributes to the body of chew products available to an animal, there is nonetheless a need to improve on the above, particularly with respect to heat forming (e.g. molding) and incorporating meat products within such chew products. Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a molded chew toy for an animal that includes meat products such as chicken. In addition, it is also an object of this invention to provide a method of including such meat products in animal chews by extrusion and injection molding.